Louis Taylor

“I feel like I am developing some kind of skitsophrinia behaviors,” reads one letter. “I hear voices echoing as I try to fall asleep.” That’s how one New York prisoner describes his lengthy experience directly from solitary confinement. The New York Times took a look at some of the letters to the New York Civil Liberties Union from more than 100 prisoners who spend 23 hours a day in elevator-sized cells. The correspondance is part of the NYCLU’s efforts to change the laws around solitary confinement. New York is one of the few states that has not wavered from extensive use of solitary in its prisons.